Never The Same
by Amelia Friend
Summary: It began with a car crash, it ended with a ... well, you'll find out. Sam/Dylan. Rani/Clyde.


**This is an idea I've had for a while.**

**Hope you enjoy.**

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It began at about 5:00 in the evening, one Friday in early-April – during the Easter holidays, so Luke was home from university for a change, and neither Clyde, Rani nor Sky had school to go to.  
Mr Smith startled them with a report that a ship, styled as those belongings notoriously to the Raxacoricofallapatorian family, Slitheen – had landed near Mount Snowdon, barely two miles from UNIT Base 5.  
The group of five waved it off, although it did pique their curiosity – _UNIT had to save the world occasionally or they might feel unwanted_ Sarah Jane explained to her now thirteen year old daughter.  
However, when a phone call came routed through Mr Smith barely fifteen minutes later requesting their presence at UNIT Base 5 as soon as possible – none could deny it, especially when the speaker was none other than the Brigadier.  
It was less than twenty minutes later they were in the car on their way to Wales, and UNIT.

One bonkers super computer, two days, three factions of Slitheen, four traitorous UNIT officers and more slime than any of them cared to admit later, they were on their way back home.  
Or so they tried anyway.

After being on the road for close to three hours, and still having no idea where they were, other than the helpful "we've crossed the Severn bridge, so we're definitely in England… I think…" comment from Clyde, the one supposed to be reading the map, all the occupants of the small car that seemed to shrink every minute were more than slightly crabby.  
For the first time in either journey, Sky spoke, breaking the silence that had lasted nearly an hour already. "Are we lost?" she asked, so quietly that it was barely heard, even in the silence.  
"You sure you should be speaking Sparky?" both Clyde and Rani asked her as one, Clyde turning around from the front passenger seat, and Rani from her right hand side – nervous now as it was discovered on the first journey that Sky got extremely car sick on long journeys, all over Clyde's brand new trousers.  
"You didn't answer my question Clani," Sky retorted faintly, already paling and closing her eyes as she leant back into her chair in the middle of the back seat.  
Luke hid a smile at the name, and reassured his little sister. "Cause not, we're just taking a scenic route, so its taking a little longer."  
"Well I want my bed, so can we go on the normal route?" she whispered, believing her elder brother who would _never_ lie to her, as a wave of nausea overtook her once again.

But Sky's question was enough to cause Sarah Jane to pull the green and white car onto the shoulder lane on the side of the motorway.  
Even before he was told to, Clyde was unbuckling his seatbelt, and getting out of his seat in the front, swapping places (and jobs) with Luke.  
Luke was now the map reader (a job made harder by the Sunday night darkness creeping over the road), and Clyde was now 'Sky's Sick Catcher' – if Sky started to throw up again, he had to make sure it went in the bag, and not all over the car or it occupants.

Luke scanned his eyes over the large map that Clyde couldn't understand as soon as he got into the his new seat, and found their position almost immediately. "We're here Mum – …"  
"What's that?" Sky suddenly butted in, feeling better now the car was longer moving, pointing at a largish building near to his finger.  
"That's the hospital Sparky; remember there was that big fire there around Christmas."  
"Oh," she muttered, not really remembering the event but shutting up anyway.  
"So," Luke continued again, to Sarah Jane, "we're not far from the Welsh border, therefore if we take _this_ road, and then _this_ one – we should be home in less than an hour and a half."  
Clyde rolled his eyes. "Why weren't you the map reader from the start, we could be home by now?" he asked slightly petulantly.  
Luke chuckled at his best friend's antics, "Because you didn't want to get 'Sky Sick' all over your clothes again."  
Clyde hit Luke at the same time as Sky hit Clyde.

Setting off again, Rani and Clyde talked quietly over Sky's near sleeping form, and they made good progress, despite Sarah Jane's habit of making wrong turns, as they approached the centre of Holby – a place that was fortunately empty at the late hour, and the fact that few would be working the next day.  
Stopping temporarily at a red light, Sarah Jane smiled to herself as she saw Sky fast asleep curled up against Clyde, whilst he spoke to Rani about schoolwork, and aliens, and the previous weekend, and everything apart from them.  
Privately Sarah Jane gave them less than a month before they started dating for real.

"Mum?" Luke's voice startled her out of her reverie, and she noted that the light had changed to green.  
Putting her foot down, she shook her head slightly at her lack of attention – something she rarely did whilst driving, or on the job.  
Then it came out of the darkness, the giant black monster.  
There was no time to react before it jammed into the side of the car, tipping it on its head as the five, now-wide awake, passangers screamed in fear.

Nothing moved for a moment and then…

Silence reigned once again.

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**The Casualty characters will arrive in the next chapter.  
Thank you for reading, please review,  
Mia.**


End file.
